Times Of Swaziland: COPS WARN AS ... SCAMMERS NOW POSE  AS HIT MEN, DEMAND CASH

COPS WARN AS ... SCAMMERS NOW POSE  AS HIT MEN, DEMAND CASH
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Mthunzi Mdluli on 23/10/2024 10:09:00


MBABANE – There is a new breed of scammers.
They pose as hit men, popularly known as tinkabi. It has been gathered that
these scammers call their targets and inform them that they have been hired to
kill them. They are said to demand money ranging between E20 000 and E40 000
from their targets. According to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), two
new cases are currently being investigated. The Oxford Dictionary defines a hit
man as a person who is paid to kill someone, especially for a criminal or
political organisation. This kind of practice is common in the Republic of South
Africa (SA). The targeted individuals are said to have reported their suspicions
before losing their hard-earned money.
Revealed
The police revealed that the scammers in the cases under investigation used
South African SIM cards to make the calls. Assistant Commissioner Director Fraud
and Commercial Unit, Nicholas Jele, said the people who are targets are those
who have a lot of money. According to Jele, the charlatans sent SMSes to the
victims, stating that they were in KwaZulu-Natal, hired by some people to kill
them. “These fraudsters normally tell their targets that they have received a
call from someone in Eswatini, asking them to hire hit men on their behalf to
kill them. They also tell them that they have paid up to E40 000. Once they say
that, as a target, you can see how high you can jump in terms of paying, so that
you are not murdered,” said Jele. Furthermore, Jele pointed out that the
scammers make use of another narrative, where they inform the victims of their
religious beliefs.
Scammers
“Some of the scammers praise the victims for being staunch believers in God or
being protected by their ancestors, saying that is why they feel tempted to tell
their targets about such evil intentions against them and how they are supposed
to carry out the task of eliminating the target. This is the new trend we are
seeing on the block,” said Jele. He pleaded with the public to be cautious of
any suspicious calls they receive. He indicated that the scammers find it hard
to link the assassination with the reason behind it.
“The scammers are unable to give clear explanations or link why they have been
assigned to carry out the murder. In case they have your personal information,
they then link the reasons for them being hired to carry out the task. The
scammers’ intention is to con those individuals their monies. Should you
receive such a call, do not hesitate to report or call the police with immediate
effect. So far, we have two fresh cases. They managed to call me after receiving
such suspicious calls from unknown people before losing their money,” he said.
Jele assured the public that they are able to make investigations in
collaboration with companies such as MTN, which assist them with crucial
information.
Fraudsters
He said the police are able to get the fraudsters using SA SIM cards, despite
the fact that they are not registered to anyone’s name. He was responding to
questions on how possible it is for them to apprehend the scammers.“It is
possible to arrest scammers who commit offences using SA SIM cards, although we
cannot divulge our techniques. Once we disclose such information, our future
operations might be affected.”According to Jele, they work together with SA
police and local network companies in locating the exact spot the scammer was at
the time of executing the offence.He pleaded with the public to never fall prey
to this new kind of scam.
Recently, emaSwati were conned money amounting to E695 340 in a period of eight
months this year, while trying to pay rents or buy houses or plots via social
media.A few weeks ago, this publication wrote an article where the Eswatini
Bankers Association (EBA) indicated that certain individuals and companies in
the country were scammed approximately E1.5 million.According to EBA, the
victims were reported to have been scammed from January 2024, to date.The
scammers, according to the association, committed such fraudulent activities
through the use of known police officers and bank staff. The association further
stated that the companies lost the money after the charlatans faked the letters
before sending emails as a way of demanding payments.
Cautious
Fraud Prevention Liaising Committee’s, Nomfundo Mkhatshwa, pleaded with the
public to be cautious about this trend used by scammers to con emaSwati and
companies.On the first type of scam, Mkhatshwa said the fraudsters call the bank
clients or send SMS, where they issue threats of likely to lose their monies,
since their bank accounts had been compromised. She said the swindlers tell the
bank account holders to act with immediate effect in order not to lose their
monies. Mkhatshwa also said the swindlers had developed another strategy of
using the names of known police officers under the Cybercrime Unit and those
employed by the banks to con the people. She said the victims are then being
told by the scammers that some bank staff will attend to them shortly in sorting
out their account issues to avoid being defrauded.
Also, about two months ago, this publication ran a story where scammers stole E4
586 647 from January to July.Online shopping, online investment, and business
email compromise were some of the contributing factors that led to emaSwati
losing about E5 million within that period.According to the police report, 121
fraud cases were reported where a sum of money totalling E4 586 647 was lost.
The police stated that almost half of the money was lost through business email
compromise, whereby criminals attempt to trick a senior executive (or budget
holder) into transferring funds or revealing sensitive information.
Worth noting is that 602 reported cases of fraud resulted in Eswatini losing
close to E700 million in 2023. The statistics increased by 1 000 per cent. In
2023, the country is reported to have lost about E675 185 309.95 as compared to
2022, where 502 reported cases were attributed to E55 296 552 26. The statistics
indicate that there were 226 internet fraud cases, followed by miscellaneous
fraud (220), commercial ATM (32), money not declared (28), crypto currency (10),
and counterfeit (3).
In 2023, the Eswatini Bankers Association (EBA) also reported that banking
customers lost a sum of E334 000 in 23 reported new scams by con artists between
July and November 2023. EBA President Zakhele Lukhele, during the previous
interview said the fraudsters committed such scam through the use of loan
portals.A loan portal is a specially designed website that provides information
about the specific loan from a lender and serves as a single point of access to
such a loan.Lukhele indicated that customers experienced such kinds of scams
online.
Explaining how they work, he said the fraudsters normally impersonate banks on
social media, leading to members of the public falling victim after believing it
to be authentic and thus losing their hard-earned monies, unknowingly.
Lukhele said the con artists normally ask the victims to share their
confidential information such as log in credentials used on internet services
and WhatsApp.According to the president, some customers end up getting tempted
by sharing their information with these fraudsters on the social media platform,
with the hope of getting the loans as promised.